Reuniting with Friends.

The arabic baths were pretty cool. Basically this entire spa building filled with different temperature pools, moorish architecture, and awesome tea. The past few weeks have been pretty laid back. Everyone got back from Morocco sick as dogs so for about 2 weeks few people actually went out. Unfortunately, my roommate, Nicole, went to the hospital two days after she got back. After a MRI, blood-work and a scope-test, we found out she had appendicitis! The surprising thing is doctors said it had nothing to do with Morocco (Go figure). I guess we can say that she survived Morocco for the most part.

Two weekends later, the group had our trip to Cordoba and Granada. Cordoba is this small town that is famous for its giant mosque. After my intense art midterm, I was happy to say that I probably could have given the tour at this place. It was better than I had imagined. 800 marble columns that surrounded this monstrosity of a church. In the 16th century or so, a bishop of Cordoba wanted to put a "small" chapel in the Mosque. 500 columns were removed and this grandeur church was put in the middle. I kept thinking wow, they really wanted to make a point that they had conquered the moors. In Emily Huth terms, "It was way too much." It was my favorite site to date. After the tour we walk around and got on the bus to Granada. Favorite part of Granada was reuniting with Emily and Lindsay! After a walking through a local neighborhood, we got to go out that night. Evidently, Granada has the biggest Botellon in Spain! It was seriously a block long of kids drinking and smoking. A site to see. I also had the best Kebab I have had to date, Thanks Lindsay! The next day we went to the Alahambra which was fun to see again. Couldn't believe how big it was!

Last week a special friend from the States came to visit me! I was so excited to see him, I kept myself busy for the entire week. Too bad that when I picked him up from the airport I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep and it was raining like cats and dogs. The week was filled with seeing the local sites and eating out a lot. Got to try a lot of new restaurants and see things from a tourist perspective again. We got to walk around Triana and through the Maria Luisa park! So nice to catch up with the guy I had been missing for 4 months! Crazy right!? On Sunday we went to the football game! Unsurprisingly, James was ecstatic. Even though they lost, definitely something I had to see while I was here. After many bottles of wine and deserts galore, Thanksgiving arrived. If you could ask anyone on our trip, Thanksgiving was definitely the day everyone wanted to be at home with their families. Thanks to James, I was not alone! I also got to talk to everyone at thanksgiving in Racine and Columbus! So Special! We decided to go to this sushi place, where we had yummy appetizers, sushi, and wine. It was awesome! On Friday we went to Italica, this small town that has a collection of Roman ruins. James loved it! Pretty cool to think about how people used to walk down the different streets that lined the ruins. Quite a flash-back.

Through the past few weeks, I have been trying to get to see more things and really think about what it has meant to live here and experience abroad. Honestly, I have learned a lot about myself and I don't think I have changed that much, but I have become the best part of myself. I have discovered new interests and I have definitely come to appreciate everything that Spain and Europe has to offer. Although there are points of this trip I have just wanted to have things the "American" way, I know on returning to the US I will ask why can't we do the "Spanish" way? I have started to notice things in great detail. This past week I had to do this research paper on the Alfonso XIII hotel. Its been a lot of fun to visit it, make observations and think about influence it has had on Sevilla. Its also so fun getting to know this new group of people. It's only in these types of experiences, would I get to know, people that are not necessarily like me. Its been an eye-opener. One week till London and 3 till my return to the USA. In away its been so long and in others its gone by so fast. Wish me luck as I experience my first cold climate since I've been here.

O Blog....

I know no Blog in the longest time ever! Just means I've been having too much fun!

I think it was a month ago now that my dad came to Spain to hang out with me. We went to the Cathedral, Alcazar, Maria Luisa Park, Plaza de Espana, and Universidad de Sevilla. We also met up for dessert with my host mom. Despite the language barrier I thought the conversation went very well! The next day we rented a car to go to Granada. Fun Idea in theory except... no NeverLost.. Lets just say we got lost a few times... Granada was pretty cool. We walked around most of the first day trying to find this restaurant that was in my travel book. We were soo lost but after a good hike we found it. It turned out to be this local hot-spot and the food was really good! The next day we saw the Alhambra, which was amazing! I get to go back with my program in a few week and I really can't wait to see it again. Then we went to Marbella which is this town that is on the ocean. Very rich... Like the prince of Saudi Arabia brought his two boats with him. We drove back to Sevilla where dad was catching his train for Madrid. So fun to have him here and show him all the cool things that I get to see all the time!

Mostly school surprisingly has been a big part of this experience. I am really enjoying most of my classes. Although its tedious, I like my art class. Learned a lot about the history of civilizations in Andalusia... I think its missing the art part but all is well. Love my business spanish class. My teacher is totally up for tangents about companies in the US and Spain..

Overall, the past few weeks have been pretty good. Unfortunately, unlike my other classmates I've started to lose enthusiasm for the every day things. Being in Europe this long, I have to slap myself sometimes to remember "This is not normal for you!! The US is not this pretty!" It almost seems like I have lived here for more than 3 months... Except for the Spanish. Overall, I can definitely hold my own. I'm not sure about the fluency yet just because I am not speaking it all the time. Definitely something to work on the next few weeks!!

This past weekend some friends and I took a trip to Gibraltar. It was so much fun to technically go to a different country. Gibraltar is this piece of land that is actually owned by the British. We had to bring our passports and even go through this small customs.. Gibraltar basically is part of England. English is the first language, but everyone speaks spanish just because of the proximity. We took a tour up the big rock and saw caves, monkeys and amazing views! The Rock has a lot of history just because the town used to be a military center. They used the cave to shoot canons and have a hospital! And most importantly there are two billion monkeys on this rock. They date back to the moorish rule of Gibraltar when they had the monkeys as pets. Kinda scary having all these monkeys just running around and even jumping on one of my friends. Nice to get away and experience another place that has this melting pot history/culture..

Celebrated Halloween with my friends last night! Ended up going to this cheap china store, and buying these cool masks. Preceded to go to this Texas/Mexican bar where we watched the vikings/patriots game. Today I am going to the Arabic Baths! Very excited. Let you know how everything is there later!

Til next time !